Jared+Frisby+LMF

//Learning Motivation and Fun - Jared Frisby//
 //View// the assignment page //for a more detailed explanation of this project.

I’m a big fan of charts and graphs, as long as they convey meaningful data. I thought it would be fun to do some data comparison on a few categories and extrapolate what the data means. //


 * Conclusion #1: ** // Learners in the twenties are more likely to consider an experience motivational and fun if there is high activity level, compared with other age groups. //

When submitting assignments, we were given three choices for the level of activity: low, medium, and high. Half of the age groups (10-19, 30-39, 60-69, and No Answer) reported 33% or fewer of the stories as having a high activity level. The other categories (2-9, 20-29, 40-49, and 50-59) all have a 40% or greater report of high activity - with the 20-29 age group showing a 52% report of high activity levels. While this data is limited, it appears that learners in this age group respond well to high levels of physical activity in a learning activity.




 * Conclusion #2: ** // Female learners and male learners seem to have similar feelings toward the time spent paying attention to the teacher. //

Other than a slight aberration in the data, it appears that male and female learners report similar amounts of time spent paying attention to teachers or media in a class. The chart below shows the reported number of stories, broken down by the percentage range, for each gender. Results have been converted to percentages, rather than just the straight number of reported incidents, in order to have an equal showing for both genders. What does this mean for those planning learning activities? It appears that the ideal amount of time spent paying attention to teachers or media is between 20% and 60%. Further data analysis could discover whether the amount of time spent paying attention to teachers or media varies between age groups.




 * Conclusion #3: ** // Learning experiences with a high level of sensory richness are more meaningful to learners, especially with younger age groups. //

The following graphs show some very interesting results concerning the level of sensory richness. First, over half of the stories report a high level of sensory richness. Only one in eight stories reported a low level of sensory richness. Additionally, younger age groups in particular reported a high level of sensory richness in learning experiences that were motivation and fun. As educational technologists, this is a good indication that we need to be aware of the importance of sensory richness in the learning experiences our learners are engaged in.




 * Conclusion #4: ** // Male learners tend to have more career-related learning experiences than female learners, while female learners tend to have more hobby-related learning experiences. //

I compared the types of learning experiences (hobby, academic, and career) between genders and found some interesting results. First, both male and female learners reported similar levels of hobby-related learning experiences (42% for males and 39% for females). Second, female learners reported a much higher level of academic-related learning experiences than male learners (52% for females and 38% for males). Finally, male learners reported over twice the percentage of career-related learning experiences as female learners (21% for males vs. 9% for females). Depending on the type of learning experience we’re designing, this could have a big impact on our target audience. When other factors for each gender are studied (such as activity levels, motivation levels, etc.), this could have a big impact on the way the learning activity is designed.




 * Conclusion #5: ** // Male learners between 10-29 years old are far more likely to have a motivational and fun learning experience that is inward-focused than female learners. //

I found this data very interesting. Male learners, of which there were 72 stories versus 89 stories for female learners, reported over twice as many learning experiences that were inwardly focused at a high level (for this report, I considered 80% or higher as being a high level). When converted to a percentage of stories for each gender, nearly 17% of learning experiences for males were highly focused inwardly, versus 10% for females. While both are still rather small percentages, it’s interesting to note that there is such a large difference. It would be fascinating to examine deeper data to determine the cause of this gap. Is it due to gender differences (i.e. “task-oriented” versus “relationship-oriented” studies)? A higher instance of career-related learning experiences than academic-related learning experiences? Coincidence?